Mary Cipperman ’21 | Dhilan Lavu ’21
This year, five juniors were named Lilley Fellows rather than just one or two as had been the case in the past two years. Additionally, the Lilley Advanced Independent Study Program has been announced for the 2020-2021 school year. This program will allow students to develop a self-guided study program, alongside a teacher at EA, in order to explore an academic interest.
The Lilley Fellowship is an opportunity for juniors to investigate a scholarly passion and to produce a final project. Students present their research to the Upper School in September, after a semester and summer of work and research.
Students first complete a rigorous application, including a personal statement, two letters of recommendation, a project outline, a resource review, a project description, and ultimately an interview before the fellowship committee. John Kelly, History Teacher and Lilley Fellowship coordinator, explains that the committee decided to open the fellowship to all academic interests, not just those that related to J-Term (now May-term) coursework. “As a result,” he says, “We had more applications than we’ve ever had.” He explains that the committee looked for fellows with “intellectual curiosity, rigor, and uniqueness.” He continues, saying that “the bar was set by the previous fellows, and we thought that these five met that this year.”
This year, the fellows are Mary Cipperman ‘21, looking into election fraud, Krissie Essilfie ‘21, questioning U.N. peacekeeping missions; Erica Feehery ‘21, attempting to better educate kids with autism, Kat Harrar ‘21, a returning fellow who will continue her farm to table mission; and Vince Vento ‘21, who will be examining wrongful convictions in America.
Even with the expansion, all fellows will have access to the same funding as in years past. Alexander Jimenez, Upper School English teacher and project mentor, comments on how incredible the expansion will be for the student body. “I think empowering students to pursue what they’re personally passionate about will definitely imbue them with a sense that education is personal. Education isn’t this impersonal, abstract thing. It’s something that you can immerse yourself in, and something you can be passionate about.”
Kelly announced a second expansion to the program: the Lilley Advanced Independent Study Program. “That’s for students who have a really great idea or academic interest that they can’t study in the existing curriculum,” Kelly explains. Students will have the opportunity to work with a teacher who is an expert on the student’s chosen topic. These “Lilley Scholars” will collaborate with a teacher to make a curriculum and to articulate a plan for a final assessment, such as a video, a final presentation, or a published paper. While the Lilley Fellowship is for students to do work outside of the classroom, the Lilley Advanced Independent Study Program is designed for students to complete in-school work.
The application process for this program will be just as rigorous as for the fellowship. Applications for the 2020-2021 school year will be due on April 13. About two to five students will be selected for next year.